Kezo mon ami! The recently increased max range of 220……a full charge, at home with a Pod Point, gave 220 once. Now it finishes at between 185 & 201. This is then reduced pro rata according to conditions. At 220 I’d be happy enough. Last evening was, however, a potential final straw. As stated, with a huge 185 allowing me about 87 real world miles, I must reconsider. Regardless Take care out there and thank you for replying. Harry
This post by me is based on an assumption, let me get that out of the way first – there’s two options. Either you drove on the motorway (or motorway speeds), or something is wrong with your car.
The 185/201 mile range indicated is normal, the car takes prior journeys and charge states into account, meaning that due to the poor performance of the car currently, it estimates lower ranges. It’ll creep back up once it gets warmer.
Second, let me explain why i think you drove motorway speeds: it’s because Vauxhall states on their webpage that the car at 70mph, at around 5 degrees (or slightly higher but wet), has a range of 117 miles. That’s reasonably close to your result (headlights, heated seats etc aren’t included in that). If you didn’t drive at motorway speeds, there’s no way that you only get 90ish miles out of the battery regardless of the weather, unless something’s wrong with the battery. The numbers get worse the faster you get – at 75mph it drops from 117 to 106 miles.
Now.. I’ll continue based on the assumption of driving at 70mph – avoid it, if you can. According to the Vauxhall supplied calculator for your car, by changing from 70mph to 50mph (basically, avoiding the motorway), the range changes from 117 miles to 168 miles, everything else being the same. If you switch from normal to eco, that increases again to 177 miles.
On top of that, you also regenerate a few miles on a journey that requires braking every now and then, increasing the range further.
It’s inherent to electric motors – if someone would ask me to explain the main difference between an electric motor and a combustion engine, it’s that where a combustion engine is uneconomical (acceleration, or more specifically, “load”), the electric motor shines. Both have the same flaw though: high revs use loads of fuel/electricity. Combustion engines have gearboxes to decrease revs, (most) EVs don’t.
Driving a Corsa E on the motorway at 70+ mph is virtually the equivalent of running a petrol Corsa at 5000+ rpm in 3rd gear at 70mph.
The slower you go, the further you make it, basically. Of course, that’s all based on the assumption that you indeed went “fast” – if you didn’t, then something isn’t right with the car.
For comparison, there’s a channel on youtube called “Battery Life”, the guy real-world tested his ID3 in winter times – multiple times. Running at 130km/h (80mph) at freezing point returned 190km range (118 miles), running at 90km/h (55mph) returned 292km (181 miles), same conditions. That’s for the 58kwh ID3.
Just trying to help.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.